Inoculation

We've all heard the phrase "a little knowledge can be dangerous". The same could be true for Christianity. Knowing a little bit about Jesus can be dangerous and that it prevents us from digging deeper and developing A closer relationship with him. It's sort of like being inoculated. When we went to inoculate somebody from a deadly disease we give them a dead form of that same virus that causes the body to react to learn about it just a little bit so that when the real thing comes along the body can attack it and prevent it from spreading throughout the rest of the body. The same happens with Jesus. Some people feel that they know all about him. Maybe they took a class in college or high school in which they spent maybe a chapter on Christianity. Or maybe they even went to church for a brief time when they were young they may have even been confirmed and feel that they know enough and that's all they need and they can go on. So that when the Holy Spirit comes in their lives and tries to develop a deeper relationship between them and Jesus their immune to it they feel that they know enough I don't need to dig any deeper they don't need to spend any time in his word they know what Christianity is all about. That little knowledge they have is really preventing them from going any further. They essentially have a "dead form of faith" which passes off as "being religious" and fools them into a false sense of security.  

The History books don't matter

    A phrase President Obama liked to use a lot in his speeches was "They will be on the wrong side of history".   It was meant as a way of saying, "We can't do anything about their actions now, but history will not be kind to them and will right the wrong later".   When Russia invaded the Ukraine, Obama said this of them as a way trying to scold Vladimir Putin into rethinking his decision. 

   One has to wonder about this issue of being on the "right side of history".  If I am an atheist and don't believe in a life after death, why should I care what the history books right about me?  I don't exist anymore and I won't be able to care what they write about me anyway.    Does Hitler care?  Stalin?   Mao?  Do you think Putin will care when he is gone?

    But if there is a heaven and hell, it's NOT the history books that I will be mostly concerned with when I am gone.  It will be a different set of books God has that will be of much larger concern to me.   In the previous case, the history books are essentially moot and powerless.  In the later case, God's books have a lot to say about us.

 In Revelation 20:12, the Apostle John writes in,

12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books....
15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

    God keeps 2 sets of books, much like businesses keep ledgers with credits and debits being tracked.  On God's books it's much the same.  One one side is the list of all our sins we have committed, and on the other is the sins paid for by God's own Son JESUS CHRIST!  For those, who are baptized in Christ Jesus they are made alive in him and pass from death to life.  Not in some future time, but RIGHT NOW!   We have nothing to fear as we die.  Our names are written not only in the Book of Life,  but in God's own hands.  800 years before Christ, the Prophet Isaiah wrote,

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands!

   Our names are not written in "pencil" in the Book of Life, but are written in the blood Christ shed on the cross for us!

How Hollywood agrees with the 2nd Amendment

What do all these movies have in common?

1984
The Running Man
Hunger Games
Divergent
Fahrenheit 451

Being Remembered

   I have seen a trend that is occurring more and more often.   That trend is putting "memorials" on the backside of your vehicle to commemorate the death of a loved one.   The most common one is the decorating of the back windshield with white-lettering and pictures of doves, hearts, angels etc and including the birth and death dates of the person.   This, in affect, turns the vehicle into a mobile-grave-marker.   I can understand why someone would do that.   I know that people don't visit cemeteries and therefore grave-markers go unnoticed by most of us.  It's hard to accept that many people die without being "remembered" by most of us.   We want their lives to have meaning and consequence.   We yearn for their lives to have an impact on this earth.

   Jesus was asked by one of the thieves on the cross next to him,

"Lord! Remember me when you enter your kingdom!"

   That's all.... just "remember me".   And to his astonishment Jesus goes far beyond his request to be remembered.   He promises the man complete forgiveness of his sins and that he will enter God's kingdom that very day when he replies,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”   --Luke 23:43

   The man who had no hope at all when he was lifted on his cross next to Jesus now had the best hope anyone could ever have.  I think the Pharisees down below must have been scratching their heads as they heard Jesus during his agony on the cross minister to this lost soul.  Maybe they would recall Jesus own words earlier when he said to those who made exception to Jesus eating and drinking with "sinners",

"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to   repentance.”  --Luke 5:32

   How much does this thief know of Jesus?   Answer: hardly anything at all.  Most of what he has learned came from the mockers down below.  They yelled "insults" at him.   Taunted him with his "claims" and probably quoted some of Jesus own teachings back at him.   That's all it takes for the Holy Spirit to work.   Even when the world mocks Jesus it inadvertently professes about him and performs an unintended spreading of the gospel.  Yet despite the small amount of what he has learned in the few hours he has been placed next to Jesus he has come to accept him as "Lord".  Simply amazing!

    When Jesus sent out his disciples and they came back bragging about what they saw happen.  They bragged to each other about how they saw the sick being healed and demons being pushed out of people.   Jesus admonishes them and says,

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.  -- Luke 10:20

    We, also, get caught up in our own earthly "demon kicking" and need Jesus to remind us what really matters in the end.  He reminds us that being "remembered in heaven" is so much more valuable than being remembered here on earth.  I had a conversation with a co-worker on how it's so silly some of the verbal fights we see going on at our company over which vendor we should use for our work.   I said to him, "There's not going to be a bronze statue of me standing outside our building in Folsom with me standing next to an emulator and pointing out into the distance!  When I leave I will be forgotten along with all I have worked on too!". 

     As we make our way through this world we daily need Jesus gentle reminder of what is really important: "He will not forget us when we die but will take us to heaven to be with him forever"